Attacks in Egypt, Libya, South Sudan spike

May 2, 2014
|

Libyan security forces are seen advancing during clashes with anti-government forces following an attack on a Benghazi police station, early on Friday. At least five Libyans soldiers were killed in clashes with gunmen in the restive eastern city of Benghazi, military sources and medics said. / ABDULLAH DOMA AFP/Getty Images

by Sarah Lynch, Special for USA TODAY

by Sarah Lynch, Special for USA TODAY

CAIRO â?? Militant and terrorist attacks erupted in Egypt, Libya and South Sudan in what analysts warn is an increasingly volatile upheaval across North Africa that local forces are struggling to stop.

"This is part of a trend," said Oliver Coleman, a senior MENA analyst at risk analysis company Maplecroft, in the United Kingdom, about violence in Egypt.

"I can't see a reduction in terrorist threats going forward, both in Egypt and in the region," he said. "The outlook is pretty pessimistic."

â?¢ In Egypt, two people died when a suicide bomber struck a checkpoint near Mount Sinai in the southern part of the country's Sinai Peninsula, state news agency MENA reported. One person was killed and three were injured when a second blast struck a bus in the area not far from Sharm el Sheikh, a resort city popular with Western tourists.

In Cairo, a third explosion â?? a homemade bomb â?? killed a police officer and injured four others outside a court in the eastern part of the capital, MENA said.

â?¢ In Libya, five people were killed and at least ten injured early Friday morning when militiamen tried to storm a security headquarters in Benghazi, in the country's east, army officials told Reuters.

â?¢ In South Sudan, Secretary of State John Kerry landed in the capital of South Sudan to warn the country's government to embrace a cease-fire after an estimated thousands of people have died in violence.

The State Department reported that terrorist attacks worldwide by al-Qaeda affiliates has jumped 40% between 2012 and 2013. Much of that violence is happening in the Middle East and North Africa, it says in its annual global terrorism report, notably in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, northwest Africa, and Somalia.

Attacks by Islamist militants spiked in Egypt since the ouster of Islamist leader Mohamed Morsi last summer following a move by security forces to clear pro-Morsi protest camps in the capital.

Most violence has targeted security forces and government facilities. But earlier this year four people were killed when a suicide bomber struck a tourist bus in the Sinai, a sprawling mass of land that borders Israel and the Gaza Strip.

In recent months, Egyptian authorities have bolstered efforts to battle terrorist threats, particularly in the Sinai region. But violence across the country persists ahead of a presidential election planned for the end of May.

Many attacks are the work of terrorists who oppose the military's takeover of the country since the ouster of Morsi by former army chief and current presidential contender Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Coleman said.

If al-Sisi wins the upcoming presidential election, which is widely expected, violence may worsen, he said.

In Libya, fighting erupted between the Libyan army and militants from Ansar al-Sharia, a U.S.-designated terrorist group affiliated with al-Qaeda, according to the Libya Herald, an online daily news site.

Residents of Benghazi said the worst fighting occurred between 2 a.m. and the morning call to prayer around two hours later, and that intermittent shooting went on well after sunrise.

Libya has been plagued by fighting since the 2011 ouster of longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi. Islamist terror groups have sprung up and militias that helped oust Gadhafi often battle with each other over authority in various cities where central authority is weak.

Ansar al-Sharia is the group that is blamed by the United States for the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi in 2012 that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

"Much of this relates to the weakness of police and army, but also political paralysis in the capital between different factions," said Frederic Wehrey, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and an expert on Libyan security.

"In Benghazi there are multiple layers of conflict. There are Islamists, there are tribes against the old regime, and I don't see that changing anytime soon."

The country is a failing - if not a failed state - that is pushing its problems across its borders, Wehrey said.

"Libyan arms are showing up across the region even as far as Syria. Al Qaeda is seeking a foothold in the country, and in some cases is starting to establish a foothold or at least is making some inroads," he said. "So this is a huge concern for outside powers, for the Europeans, for the Americans."

Broader regional unrest, he said, "is certainly distressing."

In South Sudan, widespread ethnic killings swept the country since gun battles erupted in December between opposing forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and former Vice-President Riek Machar, whom Kiir accused of mounting a failed coup.

In Juba, the country's capital, Kerry sought to convince opposing authorities to halt violence that has erupted largely between their tribes â?? Kiir's Dinka tribe and Machar's Nuer tribe.

Both the U.S. and the U.N. are threatening sanctions if the violence continues. Western officials are trying to persuade the African Union - the all-Africa organization that sometimes sends troops to trouble spots - to deploy thousands of troops to South Sudan to keep the peace.

Kerry warned that the international community faces a serious challenge should the violence descend into genocide.

"It is our hope that that can be avoided," Kerry said. "It is our hope that in these next days, literally, we can move more rapidly to put people on the ground who could begin to make a difference."

Several U.S. lawmakers are pushing for sanctions, which President Obama authorized but has yet to impose.

"At this juncture, continued U.S. leadership is essential as the violence intensifies, with alarming reports of the targeting of civilians along ethnic and national lines and attacks on UN peacekeepers," nine U.S. Senators wrote on Thursday in a letter to Obama. "The United States must take immediate steps to put South Sudan's leaders on notice that the status quo cannot continue."